The Wild Sorraia Horse: Was it the first horse before domestication?

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greentec

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The Wild Sorraia Horse: Was it the first horse before domestication?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWxAQns-7mM

The Sorraia is a rare breed of horse indigenous to the portion of the Iberian peninsula, in the Sorraia River basin, in Portugal. The Sorraia is known for its primitive features, including a convex profile and dun coloring with primitive markings.
This Documentary introduces Alfredos project concerning the research of the Sorraia Horse.
Music By KOAN Sound • KOAN Sound | Forgotten Myths
Filmed at Herdade do Freixo do Meio HFM | Novidades
Filmed by Serena Aurora https://auroraseye.wordpress.com
 
Nice video, even though the Sorraia is decending from farm horses and the breed only exists since 1937, so it might indeed be an interesting breed but no it is the first horse before domestication.
 
Who knows and even though it seems that very few wild horse stallions seem to have left a genetic mark on the current domestic horse population, there has been evidence that wild mares interbred with domestic horses in different parts of the world at different times. So the domestication process might have been not that straight forward.

And till now genetic evidence shows that so-called claimed relic breeds which should be close to the wild ancestor of the domestic horse, like Dartmoor ponies, Koniks or different Iberian breeds are not that different from other breeds.
 
The wild (non domesticated) horse still exists. It is in zoos (where it was saved) and reintroduced recently back into the wild in Mongolia. It is the taki, also known as Przewalski's horse or Mongolian wild horse. There is also an extinct wild horse from Europe which I believe was called the European forest horse (I am a bit fuzzy on this one). As far as I know (which is not much) this may have been just a different subspecies of the taki or it may have been an entirely different species. Would love to hear from others on the topic.

What I do know is what people call wild horses over here in the United States are in fact NOT wild horse, but feral horses. (That is they are from domestic horses and have escaped farms and formed free ranging herds).
 
The tak(h)i aka Przewalski's horse aka Equus [ferus] przewalskii might be currently the only true wild horse (i.e. not a feral horse, such as the Sorraia), but it's not the original wild form of our domesticated horse (which would be Equus ferus, with the European Tarpan as a now extinct potential subspecies). The taxonomic correlation of the takhi to Equus ferus (subspecies, separate species, ?) is still a subject of debate.
 
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